Best Brick Grilled Baby Squid With Tamarind Mint Dressing Recipes

SQUID SALAD WITH TAMARIND SAUCE

Steps:

• Make sauce:
• In a bowl stir together tamarind and warm water, mashing tamarind gently, about 4 minutes and strain through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on solids. Add remaining sauce ingredients, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
• Flower-cut squid (procedure follows) or cut squid sacs crosswise into 1/2-inch ring and halve flaps crosswise. Halve large tentacles. In a large saucepan of boiling salted water cook squid 45 seconds, or just until opaque, and drain in a colander. Rinse squid under cold water to stop cooking and drain well. Add squid to sauce, tossing well. Salad may be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring salad to room temperature before proceeding with recipe.
• Add herbs and onion to salad and toss well. Serve salad drizzled with sriracha sauce.
• To Flower-Cut Squid:
• Remove flaps from body sacs and reserve. Cut each body sac lengthwise along seam to form a flat piece and rinse squid well. Spread squid inner side up on a work surface. Holding a sharp knife at a 45-degree angle to work surface, score squid diagonally every 1/8 to 1/4 inch in a cross-hatch pattern. Score flaps in same manner. Cut squid into 1-inch pieces.

GRILLED BABY SQUID

Steps:

• Start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill; the fire should be quite hot (on a gas grill, as hot as you can get it) and the rack no more than 4 inches from the heat source and preferably less. Or preheat a heavy pan over high heat (and turn on an exhaust fan if you have one) for about 5 minutes.
• If you need to clean the squid, pull off the head and tentacles and separate them by cutting just behind the head; save the tentacles and discard the head. Rinse out the inside of the bodies and dry well.
• Sprinkle the squid with coarse salt and toss them lightly with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. If you are grilling, skewer the squid. Grill or pan-grill the squid quickly, about 1 minute per side; they should brown nicely but remain moist inside.
• Put the squid on a plate. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and sprinkle with lemon juice or vinegar and a bit more salt. Serve immediately.
• Grilled Baby Squid, Japanese Style
• Here the grill is requisite, because the soy sauce coating would burn on a griddle: After cleaning the squid, marinate them briefly in a mixture of 1/4 cup soy sauce and 2 tablespoons mirin (or 1 tablespoon honey mixed with 1 tablespoon white wine). Grill and garnish with toasted sesame seeds (page 596). (Black sesame seeds are more commonly used here, and they look nice against the white squid, so if you can find them, by all means use them. Look in Japanese, Chinese, or Indian stores.)

BRICK GRILLED BABY SQUID WITH TAMARIND-MINT DRESSING

Steps:

• Heat grill to high heat. Brush squid with oil on both sides and season with salt and white pepper. Place the squid on the grill close together and lay the bricks over the squid. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes on 1 side, remove bricks, turn the squid over and place the bricks back on the squid and continue grilling for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the squid from the grill, place on a platter and immediately drizzle with the Tamarind-Mint Dressing. Garnish with chopped mint.
• Tamarind-Mint Dressing:
• Combine tamarind, vinegar, orange juice, mint, mustard and salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. Adjust seasoning.